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Optimal Nonlinear Taxation of Income and Education Expenditures

Author

Listed:
  • Jang-Ting Guo

    (Department of Economics, University of California Riverside)

  • Alan Krause

    (Department of Economics and Related Studies, University of York)

Abstract

Despite using a variety of models and assumptions, the existing literature has overwhelmingly concluded that education policy should be regressive. In this paper, we examine a two-period model in which the government may impose non- linear taxes on both labour income and education expenditures. Individuals un- dertake education in the Örst period to increase their second-period wages. Our main result is that optimal education policy in our model is progressive. SpeciÖ- cally, if the government can commit, it is optimal for high-skill individuals to face a zero marginal tax rate on their education expenditures, while that for low-skill individuals is negative. If the government cannot commit, the optimal marginal tax rate on education expenditures by high-skill individuals is positive, while that for low-skill individuals remains negative.

Suggested Citation

  • Jang-Ting Guo & Alan Krause, 2010. "Optimal Nonlinear Taxation of Income and Education Expenditures," Working Papers 201008, University of California at Riverside, Department of Economics, revised Aug 2010.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucr:wpaper:201008
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jang‐Ting Guo & Alan Krause, 2011. "Optimal Nonlinear Income Taxation with Habit Formation," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 13(3), pages 463-480, June.
    2. Gianni de Fraja, 2002. "The Design of Optimal Education Policies," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 69(2), pages 437-466.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jang-Ting Guo & Alan Krause, 2018. "Changing social preferences and optimal redistributive taxation," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 70(1), pages 73-92.
    2. Guo, Jang-Ting & Krause, Alan, 2015. "Dynamic nonlinear income taxation with quasi-hyperbolic discounting and no commitment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 101-119.
    3. Guo, Jang-Ting & Krause, Alan, 2015. "Dynamic income taxation without commitment: Comparing alternative tax systems," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 319-326.
    4. Shigeo Morita, 2017. "Optimal income taxation without commitment: policy implications of durable goods," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(4), pages 2917-2934.
    5. Alan Krause, 2017. "On redistributive taxation under the threat of high-skill emigration," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 48(4), pages 845-856, April.
    6. Giacomo Valletta, 2014. "Health, fairness and taxation," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 43(1), pages 101-140, June.
    7. Shigeo Morita, 2014. "The time consistent public goods provision," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 14-31, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    8. OBARA, Takuya, 2018. "Optimal human capital policies under the endogenous choice of educational types," CCES Discussion Paper Series 66_v2, Center for Research on Contemporary Economic Systems, Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University.
    9. Spencer Bastani & Firouz Gahvari & Luca Micheletto, 2023. "Nonlinear taxation of income and education in the presence of income‐misreporting," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(4), pages 679-726, August.
    10. Shigeo Morita, 2014. "Optimal income taxation without commitment: policy implications of durable goods," Discussion Papers in Economics and Business 14-32, Osaka University, Graduate School of Economics.
    11. Chen, Yunmin & Guo, Jang-Ting & Krause, Alan, 2020. "The credibility of commitment and optimal nonlinear savings taxation," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    12. Shigeo Morita, 2022. "The MCPF under the pandemic," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(5), pages 993-1015, October.
    13. Shigeo Morita & Takuya Obara, 2021. "Public investment criteria under optimal nonlinear income taxation without commitment," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 23(4), pages 732-745, August.

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    Keywords

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    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies

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